A Hard Battle Lesson, Not yet learned by ALL...

A fact of battle that's been true since the development of spears & lances, & missile-type weapons, such as arrows - AN ARMY CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY STORM A WELL-FORTIFIED, WELL-ARMED POSITION !

But to this very day, some commanders still try it !

One of the first such instances was when the Israelis under Joshua stormed the little city of Ai in Canaan, & were repulsed. (God caused the Israelis to try to storm it because of Achan's sin. And notice they didn't try to storm Jericho.)

In more-modern times, the famous "Charge of the Light Brigade" in 1854 during the Crimean War, due to a mix-up in orders, stands out. But it became almost-prevalent in the American Civil War. The Battle of Fredericksburg is a terrible example. The federals repeatedly attacked a heavily-fortified, well-dug-in & well-armed Rebel position on a ridge known as Marye's heights, just west of the city. The Feds advanced across open ground again & again, only to be shot down, til their commander, Gen. Burnside, finally gave up. That battle cost the Feds over 12K casualties, while the Rebs suffered over 5K.

Then, 6 months later, Lee did the same thing at Gettysburg, ordering an attack, now known as Pickett's Charge, over more than a mile of open ground, against a strong Federal position on a hill. (Actually, the charge was directed by Gen. Longstreet, under orders from Lee. Pickett was one of 3 generals under Longstreet's command. Longstreet was vehemently opposed to this attack, but his superior, Lee, insisted.)

The result ? Some 7K Reb casualties as opposed to 15 hundred Fed casualties.

Eleven months later, Grant did the same thing, attacking Lee's well-fortified army at Cold Harbor, near Mechanicsville, Va.with some 7K feds falling within an hour's time. But Grant learned his lesson. rather than trying to storm heavily-fortified Petersburg, he besieged it til Lee was forced to come out & fight because he was running outta supplies.

But armies still did it in later wars. The US did it on Tarawa & Peleliu in WW2.And, of course, both sides did it in both world wars.

"When will they ever learn,
When will they Ev-err learn?"

-Kingston trio, "where have All The Flowers Gone", 1961, Lyrix by Seeger & Hickerson